Bullet is a Nosler 165 grain 0.308 handloaded in a 30-06 to normally published velocities.

First animal is a Canadian whitetail (230 lbs on a certified scale). Shot was perfect broadside at a lasered 277 yards. Impact in shoulder region. The top of the heart and the bottom of the lungs taken out. Bullet sailed through. Animal ran roughly 50 yards before piling up in some brush. The blood trail was 12-18" wide.

Just returned from Wyoming where the second and third animals were taken with the same batch of loads.

Second and most interesting was a mulie buck. The animal was stalked in his bed to a lasered 123 yards. By chance, he was laying directly away from me. I waited until he rose and turned slightly before shooting. Aiming for the opposite shoulder, the crosshairs settled on about the end of the ribcage on the near side. As it happens, the shot landed a few inches farther back. At the shot the deer fell over and rolled and kicked his way about 10 yards down the hill. The interesting part was no exit. In fact, we cound not see any damage to the offside shoulder. Time being a factor, I did not dig and find the bullet in the extracted mess. Lungs were impressively destroyed. Massive internal bleeding. Althought this buck had only modest antlers, he was I believe the largest buck I have ever seen personally. I would honestly think 250 lbs would not be bad estimate, but no scale was available.

The last animal was a pronghorn. Shot was at a lasered 147. Shot was a bit higher than I hoped in the shoulder. Bullet passed through and the animal flopped over. Not to much of a test, but it is of note that the internal damage was more severe than I was used to seeing with my normal partitions. It was quite a coagulated goo.

I had the highest hopes this bullet would be a partition in a ballistic tip body. My favorite rifle loves 165 gr. BT, but I much prefer the partition performance and penetration that I have observed.

I think at this early stage the Accubond would be squarely between the two in expasion/penetration (and ironically, in accuracy too).

My very limited sample leaves me with some concern for using the bullet for larger game. I would want a exit hole in a mule deer, even at an extreme angle, in a bullet that I would use for elk or such. I do admit to having a strong bias towards penetration and prefer to have two hole in any animal I have shot.

I have researced the archive and read a variety of opinions and was hoping this thread would foster further discussion on real experiences with this bullet.

My next experimentation in my quest for a do-everything load will be the Barnes TSX. I have heard nothing but glowing reports on field performance and accuracy. Only complaints that I hear are of the loading manual being far too conservative.

While I adore the Partition and still consider it to be the standard by which other premiums are judges, even it would not guarantee an exit on a large deer given a 165 grain, .30 caliber projectile.

With the vitals destroyed on a raking shot that hit too far back, I'd say you got excellent bullet performance.

I use the AB in 6.5mm, 7mm and .30 calibers and consider them a bit much for our smaller south central TX deer, though they work extremely well on the area's many hogs.

Here are a few ABs:






Below is why I am not a big fan of the TSX in the smaller calibers at modest velocities on medium game:

Bobby,

EXCELLENT posting!

Thanks,

Don

I took a decent pronghorn buck last weekend in Colorado with this bullet. The load is 130 gr. Accubond pushed by 58.5 gr RL22 in my .270 WIN. The shot was about 170 yards. I was very impressed with the bullet performance. The size of the exit hole was much bigger than I had expected (~2.5 inches in diameter). To date, this is my only experience with this bullet, though.

i loaded some 140 abs and part. for my 7x57 to use this year.need to get to the range and see how they shoot. thanks for sharing.

Hey, Bobby! Ain't those old Nosler Solid Base bullets great! I can see why they dropped them from their retail line because they would do just about anything that the Partition would do.

It's pretty amazing how most of the bullets you tested penetrated just about the same distance in the test medium no matter what their construction or how much/little they expanded. I think people are often misled by the apparent performance in actual game because penetration/expansion can vary so much depending on what the bullet hits and the order in which it hits it.

I'm going to give the .30/180 Accubond @ 3070 fps MV a try on elk in a couple of weeks. Hope to have some results to report.

Yep, those old SB spitzers are terrific bullets. Thanks to the recent limited run, I did manage to stock up -- and I am glad I did.

Best of luck on your upcoming elk hunt. I hope to see pictures and details here soon!

Stonecreek wrote: "I think people are often misled by the apparent performance in actual game because penetration/expansion can vary so much depending on what the bullet hits and the order in which it hits it."

You are dead-on with that comment. Friday evening, I shot a hog from 25 yards in the center of the chest (he was facing me) with a 150 grain Sierra PH spitzer that had a muzzle velocity of just over 3000 fps (28" Encore PH barrel in .308 WCF). I didn't expect to find much, if any, of the bullet.

To my delight, it was recovered some 4" past the last rib -- and still together. Most of the impact was soft tissue, but I was still impressed by its performance.

I didn't tumble the bullet to clean it up, so here it is in "raw" form, complete with a bit of piggie blood still attached :

I wanted to try them in my 25.06 but after seeing a post on another forum of a guy shooting a 110 accubond in 25.06 on a mule deer, I think I will pass. It blew a softball size hole in the side of the deer, directly behind the shoulder joint and didn't pass through the deer. It created alot of bloodshot meat as well. I'm still looking for a good bullet to use and may try the Hornady or Sierra's? Esox357.

Metalman -

Congrats on your game! Its also VERY refreshing to read reports where every shot was pin point perfect on target and the game dropped instantly. Always nice to remember real hunting situations and "not where i wanted it to go" shooting still exists lol Got any pics of your animals?? Mule deer sure can pack some mass on them, even average sized deer!

Bobby, When/where can you get the old Nosler solid base bullets? My supply is getting really low on this fine bullet.

I got them directly from Nosler. Both the Nosler Store and Shooter's Pro Shop had them, but I think they are down to just 6mm 100 grainers.

Nosler made them in 6mm, 7mm and 30 caliber for a major ammo manufacturer, but that manufacturer did little to promote and market the ammo. Hence, it fell by the wayside, and Nosler sold off the remaining inventory.

Early on, I bought them for around $13 per box, but a sale later on had them down to something like $7.95 through the Shooter's Pro Shop.

The last of the 6mm version may have a cannelure. None of the ones I purchased in 7mm and .30 did.

Nosler does sell some items through bivwak.com auctions, so you may want to try there as well.

I forgot to add: Midwayusa.com also had the 7mm 140 grain version and sold it in bulk without naming the manufacturer. But the item description along with the accompanying image were a dead giveaway.

My Sask whitetail report should still be in the Canadian hunting section. I hope to put a report in on the current hunt as soon as I can catch back up with business.

Thanks for the replys and especially the interesting photo comparison.

One thing that struck me was the "possible" difference in performance between the 277 yd shot and shot less than 150 yds, even with a 30-06. Anyone shot anything using an Accubond at close range with a real whizbanger (>3000 fps)? Any similar pics at high impact velocity?

I have taken several animals with Accubonds. I used a 140gr in my 7mm RM on Antelope this year with great results. Last year I used 200gr in my 338-06 on bull elk both shots had complete penetration. The year before I took a 300 class bull with 160gr in 7mm RM all three shots had complete penetration. I can't complain.

Took this antelope in Colorado last week.. Used the 130gr, 6.5mm Accubonds in my 6.5x55.

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The buck was shot at a bit over 240yds...I hit a bit lower than I was aiming....the buck took about 5 steps and dropped dead...the bullet made a 2.5" exit hole and there was plenty of internal damage but no ruined meat...the bullet only hit ribs. After reading the results that some folks have had, I was wondering if I would get expansion on something as light as a 'lope, but I won't worry about that any more. Muzzle velocity on my load was 2800fps, and the impact velocity at that range was about 2300fps...

I have used the 180gr, 338 caliber Accubonds in my little 338-06AI to take several whitetails, and one 10 point red stag and that bullet kills stuff pretty dead...

I think the Accubonds are ok...

Z

zeeriverrat1 wrote:

quote:

Muzzle velocity on my load was 2800fps, and the impact velocity at that range was about 2300fps...

The performance of you load was just as I'd have anticipated.

Nosler claims expansion down to 1800 fps with the AB, and that is right on the money. With a 130 grainer in a 26" 6.5 Bullberry Improved Contender, I took a hog right at 290 yards. The MV of the load was 2626, and while the bullet was not recovered, it did a nice job on the piggie and left a quarter-sized exit.

I took another at app. 175 yards and got similar performance: the lungs were destroyed, and the exit was maybe an inch in diameter.

I use a number of moderate-velocity rounds, and on smaller deer-sized game, the ABs really are more than I need as conventional cup-and-core bullets do nicely. With that being said, the ABs certainly do work -- not to mention shooting extremely well.

Accubonds;

Shoot well (for me)
3 shot group, 7stw, 140 gr. Accubond, MV +/-3300fps


3 shot group cz550 american, 9.3 x 62, 59.5 gr varget, MV +/- 2500 fps


3 shot group, sako 7mag., 140 gr. Accubond, 65.5 gr RL19, MV +/- 3000 fps


kill things DRT (for me)
White-tail doe shot at +/- 85 yds, 257 roberts, 110 gr accubond. +/- 2800 fps


Blackbuck shot at 200 yds plus,using 7mm-08, 140 gr accubond, MV +/- 2750 fps

Four hogs (two doubles) shot minutes apart @ +/- 130 yds with Sako 7mag
140 gr accubond, MV +/- 3000 fps


Sika buck taken at +/- 120 yds. with 7mm stw and 140 gr accubond, mv@3300 fps


hog taken with 338 RUM, 225 gr accubond, @ +/- 100 yds., MV +/- 3200 fps


Unfortunately, I have never recovered an accubond bullet from an animal that I have shot, so no pix of mushroomed a/b’s.

What’s not to like
GWB

They have been working like a champ for me and 3 other guys I load for. So far, we've taken a pile of mulies, whitetails, hogs, and one large bodied bull elk.

All performance has been outstanding with 150grn .308 cal, 160 grn .284 cal, and 140grn .284 cal.

The few that were recovered were all text book mushrooms with about as much base as a NPT leaves(They looked just like Bobby's pics). Most were pass throughs and none have been too dramatic exit wound wise.

It's my favorite bullet right now as they give great accuracy, good BCs, good weight retention, good expansion, and excellent on game performance. I could not ask for anything else in a hunting bullet.

I've made some raking shots and hit alot of bone on large bodied whitetail and mulies with excellent results.

Good Luck

Reloader